Kurt M. Fraser

This study investigates the role of ventral tegmental area acetylcholine in appetitive and aversive motivation through behavioral experiments and pharmacology.

This study investigates how the central amygdala encodes and controls reward consumption in rats, showing that optogenetic stimulation enhances intake of preferred rewards but not less-preferred ones.

This study investigates the role of dopamine and neural activity in the nucleus accumbens and dorsomedial striatum in action sequence performance, finding that these regions are critical for timing and motivation in both cued and uncued tasks.

This study investigates how dopamine neurons in the mesolimbic system enable rapid revaluation of reward cues in changing environments using behavioral and neurophysiological methods in rats.

This study identifies distinct roles of VTA and SNc dopamine neurons in instrumental learning through behavioral tasks and optogenetic manipulations, showing they support different reinforcement mechanisms.

This study identifies the basolateral amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex as necessary for reward-seeking guided by occasion setters, while the dorsal hippocampus is not involved.

This study identifies RPE signals in the ventral pallidum that predict task engagement and influence reward-seeking behavior in rats.

This study investigates how context influences reward-seeking behavior in rats, finding that occasion setters generate appetitive motivation independent of their predictive value.

The study shows that dopamine in the nucleus accumbens core, but not the dorsal lateral striatum, is essential for sign-tracking behavior, even after extended training.